The Real Deal New York

The Donald says he would easily trounce Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Rob Astorino should he decide to run in 2014 thanks to his plentiful personal coffers and a much cheaper proposal for overhauling the Tappan Zee bridge.

Dubbing Astorino a “big, big long shot,” Donald Trump told WGDJ’s Fred Dicker in a radio interview that the establishment favorite would have to raise “$30 million at least” to finance a successful bid for the top job in Albany, according to Capital New York.

“I think I’d win if I decide to do it, because I wouldn’t have to raise money,” Trump said in the interview.

He also offered up an alternative to a current plan to replace the Tappan Zee bridge that would cost as much as $10 billion and necessitate a $25-per-car toll. Without specifying how he arrived at those numbers, Trump said that he could renovate the existing structure for “peanuts” in comparison to the state’s current replacement plan.

“The bridge is a totally fine structure, but it needs renewal, and the renewal can be done for a tiny fraction of the, in my opinion, $10 billion,” he said in the radio interview. “You get the right engineers — I mean the right people — not the egg heads that sit on their Park Avenue stools and they just design away because they’re going to make about ten times or a hundred times more in fees by designing a new bridge.”

The Thruway Authority, which holds the bridge construction contract, did not immediately comment to Capital New York on Trump’s statements, nor did Governor Cuomo’s office. [Capital New York] — Julie Strickland